Tag Archives: Grapefruit Sculpin IPA

Sculpin IPA is already delicious, crisp, powerful, and one of the greatest beers ever…but wait! There’s more! I finally tried Sculpin Grapefruit IPA. Drank it by the pool at a bachelorette party and it did not disappoint. In fact, I think I like it even better than the regular Sculpin IPA. It has the fresh, crisp, hoppiness of Sculpin but also comes with a lovely and well-balanced grapefruit flavor (pictured above), making it even fresher and more palatable on a hot day. I sat by the pool in the backyard of a mansion in Temecula’s wine country drinking this beer of the gods and texted a picture to my friend. She asked me if I’d died and gone to heaven. Seriously, very plausible at that moment.

I also recently tried the Habanero Sculpin IPA. I’ve tried several spicy beers by now and I usually treat them like novelties; they are good as a one-time experience. After that, you get kind of tired of the way your throat burns and itches (even if you are a huge fan of spicy food like I am). As amazing as Ballast Point is, Habanero Sculpin fell into this category. Habanero Sculpin IPA definitely tasted like Sculpin IPA, but the masterful creation that is Sculpin IPA was somewhat muddled by the smoky, itchy habanero that grew more potent as the beer warmed in my hands (I wasn’t drinking slowly by any means, but by the time I got toward the bottom, quite spicy/itchy/weird). Sometimes you just gotta leave a good thing alone.

There is a Chinese idiom about not adding legs to the painting of a snake – meaning, if you’ve a got a good thing going, don’t add elements that don’t make sense or ruin what you have. Maybe not applicable to the Grapefruit, but probably a relevant idiom when it comes to the Habanero.